Week 43

I guess first off: if you end up having to buy a new car before I'm home, get the Volkswagon Gol.
It's actually kind of a joke they have here in Brasil that strawberries are really hard to find. They definitely have them here, but it's tough to come across. And don't even bother with raspberries.
I forgot it was Father's Day. Here in Brasil Father's Day is in August.

Anyway, this week was kind of a tough week. It's not getting much better. Elder Arichichu is slowly (very slowly) getting a hang of things, but I gotta try and keep encouraging him. My district is having problems too, so I'm trying to help them out. I went on exchanges to try and help them figure things out. One of them is just plain trunky and doesn't really feel like working. I think he's here because he doesn't want to disappoint the family. His companion who's a little newer isn't handling things so well either. I went over there and talked with the younger companion, figuring he was the only one I could really do anything for. We had a really productive day in his area, so that got him fairly excited, and we just spent a lot of time talking about what he can do to help. They'e still having a tough time though, so I need to keep helping out.

We reactivated a couple really good investigators, but they'e still behind. It's tough here, I'm seeing, because everyone is so busy, we rarely have the chance to pass by our investigators more than once a week to keep them going. I'm trying so hard to keep some of these people interested and reading the Book of Mormon, but they just need to make time to go to church or they'e not going to progress any more.

So, the other day, we just had an awful day. Absolutely nothing happened. We tried contacting investigators, but no one was home. I had planned to knock on some doors from 6 to 7 that night, hoping to find some people. After about 15 minutes of rejection I was like "I'm done." but I remembered something President Martins told me in the MTC. He said that some days it's just tough, but if we keep working and don't quit early, in the last minute you'll find some success. So we kept going until 7. At about 6:58 we knocked on this guy's door (or clapped outside his gate as we do in Brasil), and he came out and talked with us for a few minutes. When I asked if we could come back another day to share more with him, he was pretty reluctant and didn't really accept. I left him with a little pamphlet and we left. I don't really know what happened, but I think we needed to talk with him that night. Maybe later on he'll talk with the missionaries and find the blessings that come from the Gospel.

Well, alright. We'e heading to FHE now. I really hope this family managed to get their friends there. I also hope they have some cake. I worked out really good today. My abs are sore. I started working out again. I'm using the bar a lot. Monday, Wednesday, Friday I work upper body and some abs; and Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday I do just abs. I'm not looking forward to the summer though. It's not fun waking up to a house that's already 80 degrees and then working out. Anyway, I'll send just a couple of random pictures I took.

"Star Command, do you read?" - "Looks like your blood pressure is to infinite and beyond." - "woa..."

Here's a couple little kids running around blowing bubbles. I don't know. They're Brasilian kids, so it's different... kind of.

--
-Elder Candland